Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling book The Help comes to the big screen with one of her close friends as the director (Tate Taylor) and another close friend, Octavia Spencer, in one of the lead roles. The drama also stars Emma Stone as a struggling writer who turns to a subject close to home for source material for her first book.

The Help also stars Viola Davis as Aibileen, Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook, Ahna O’Reilly as Elizabeth, Sissy Spacek as Mrs Walters, and Cicely Tyson as Constantine Jefferson. Jessica Chastain plays Celia Foote, Mike Vogel is Johnny Foote, Chris Lowell is Stuart Whitworth, Anna Camp stars as Jolene, and Allison Janney plays Charlotte Phelan.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, The Help opens on August 10, 2011.

• Read the full review
• Interview with Emma Stone on the Mississippi set

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Official Synopsis: Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, The Help stars Emma Stone as Skeeter, a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives — and a small Mississippi town — upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent Southern families.

Viola Davis stars as Aibileen, Skeeter’s best friend’s housekeeper, who is the first to open up—to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter’s life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories — and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly — and unwillingly — caught up in the changing times.